My new brother hatched

Mike took his sweet time to finally emerge!  We were getting pretty worried, especially Dad. He kept checking on the egg’s heartbeat and blood pressure. Dad was afraid he was cramped, but Mike said he felt cozy. The egg was HUGE, the biggest in the family, by far. That’s why Dad thought he would’ve hatched weeks ago.

Luckily, he’s totally healthy and super active. I mean, he was flying through the nursery for about an hour!  It was amazing to see. Dad kept trying to get his attention, but Mike was not ready to incubate. I guess he was stuck in that egg for so long, that he needed to stretch his tail. And it was a huge tail. He was a GIANT facehugger. I bet he’s going to be close to 8 feet tall when he grows up.

Mike finally hugged Dad’s face and incubated for around two hours. He jumped out of Dad’s chest at 6:48 pm. Dad cleaned up the mess and sopped up the blood and guts from his chest. The birth loosened some of Dad’s bolts and hinges. He had to solder his chest cavity, and then he sewed the skin covering the metal. In the meantime, Mike was even more hyper as a chestburster.

Mom is keeping watch overnight to make sure he eats.  He shed a few times already.  Last I checked, he was crying his lungs out, and poor Mom was trying to cradle him. It is NOT easy to try to cradle a chestburster!